FASTech: How Social Media Could Change Shopping At Wal-Mart

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are changing the way people shop, according to Venky Harinarayan, the new head of @Walmart Labs, and Walmart is trying to take advantage of it.

Walmart bought Harinarayan’s latest company, Kosmix, which filtered and organized social media from Silicon Valley, in April, and the store has been considering how social media and mobile phones affect how people look for products, how Walmart prices products, how products are marketed online and the overall experience of Walmart shoppers in Walmart stores, Harinarayan told the VentureWire FASTech conference in Redwood City, Calif.

Shoppers use search and social media differently, Harinarayan said. Searchers generally know which products they’re looking for, while social media users are browsing. “In search, people are extra-precise,” he said, “but in social media you follow things, like the San Francisco 49ers. It’s about topics as opposed to key words.”

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